Water Wheel Being one with all Buddhas, I turn the water wheel of compassion. —Gate of Sweet Nectar

Zen Center of Los Angeles JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 Great Dragon Mountain / Buddha Essence Temple 2553 Buddhist Era Vol. 13 No. 1

Envisioning 2012

By Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao

The winter season draws us inward even in Los Angeles, with its mild seasons and an urban life that continues its relentless pace. Winter is a time for reflec- tion and envisioning the year ahead. How will you live in this new calendar year 2012?

It is time for me to return from a year-long sabbati- cal. I look forward to seeing you again at Great Dragon Mountain and becoming acquainted with the many shifts Welcome the Year of the Dragon! and changes that have transpired in your individual life, in the life of the , and in the shared stewarding of the Center organization. Indeed, what will you do in this new year with your one wild and precious life? This life, a rare gift, is never to be wasted Much has been written and spoken about the trans- or treated carelessly. formational potential of the year 2012. These cultural conversations aside, let us look at your own transforma- What arises for you as the question settles into the tional potential, the amazing capacity inherent in you to depth of your being, into your cells, your bone marrow, penetrate this reality called life in the midst of the whole your nervous system, into the mysterious and creative catastrophe of living. place of unknowing that is you yourself?

What are you, the unique you that you are, envision- As practice deepens, you are not so fearful of open- ing for the year ahead? How will you activate your inher- ing to these questions. You yourself will die at last and too ent potential using your most intimate tools – your eyes, soon, so while there are specific tasks to take care of in ears, nose, tongue, body-mind – and live this mutually (Continued on page 2) inter-penetrating movement of the wholeness of life that is your life and every life all together? INSIDE

These lines of Mary Oliver’s poem come to mind: 3 Coming Full Circle: An Interview With Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? 6 On Taking Leave of Great Dragon Mountain, by Tell me, what is it you plan to do Sensei Kipp Ryodo Hawley with your one wild and precious life? 8 Programs 10 Rites of Passage 11 Sangha Appreciation Roshi Egyoku is Abbot and Head Teacher at ZCLA. ENVISIONING 2012 (Continued from page 1) A Thank You your particular life circumstances, there is also the call of your very own nature to know itself during this brief time For a sabbatical year, thank you. available to you. In Zen , there is no deity to For support for Eberhard’s good health, thank you. which you can turn for comfort. There is instead buddha For Kenny Boyd’s support of Kodo, thank you. nature calling forth buddha nature to fulfill itself through For Sensei Kodo’s leadership, commitment, and these most intimate of tools of your eyes, ears, nose, devotion to , thank you. tongue, body-mind. For all of my Dharma Successors, thank you. For the Shared Stewards who fearlessly enlivened The ancient buddhas give a pointer.. They say: the vision, thank you. For the Sangha’s ceaseless practice — Not doing evils, for butts on the cushion, shoulders to the wheel, and wise Devoutly practicing every good, and caring discernment, thank you. Purifying one’s own mind: For those who served in infinite ways, This is the teachings of all buddhas.* known and unknown, thank you. May we hear the universal “thank you” — whispered by the mountains, shouted by the flowers — At the start of 2012, as you envision how you will use resound throughout the web of mutuality. your most intimate tools, please reflect upon these words For Eberhard and my family and friends, of the ancient buddhas. Receive these words from a place For each and every one of you and the life we share, of no lack because the ancient buddhas speak to you let me just say again, yourself as a bona fide buddha being. thank you.

— Wendy Egyoku Nakao Not doing evils, Devoutly practicing every good, Purifying one’s own mind. of your own mind. Mutuality goes in all directions, seen and unseen, each affecting practice in the other. This vast and –Universal precepts of the ancient buddhas mysterious web of interpenetrating mutuality, this move- ment of the wholeness of life—this is buddha nature, Transformation begins when you receive the fact of your very nature, calling you forth. your buddha being-ness, a buddha nature that is authentic, genuine, inherent—not a cosmic error! The ancient How do you live this life with all of its challenges and buddhas say that a buddha's nature is not something you become one with the movement of buddha being? In Zen need to seek and acquire, but rather is revealed and af- practice, refraining from doing evil, practicing every good, and puri- firmed when you refrain from hurtful action, practice every good fying the mind gives rise to the focusing questions of how to action, and purify your own mind. live. When you envision the coming year and consider what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life, please The ancient buddhas have not underestimated your nourish yourself with a sense of playful inquiry which capacity to do this, as challenging as it may be for you to seeks not a definitive answer, but rather upholds a sense live this way. They simply ask that you investigate these of open and dynamic ongoing exploration of the mutual- universal precepts in the living laboratory of mutuality ity of buddha-being and how your commitment to the that is your life and every life all together. universal precepts can transform life for all.

As you set about envisioning the new year, start with On Great Dragon Mountain, a powerful sangha arises this simple injunction: refrain from. Dogen Zenji writes that in response to these explorations. I hear there is a lot of when you practice refraining from, “the power of practice is laughter permeating the mountain, and I look forward to immediately actualized. This is actualized on the scale of laughing together with you again. I cherish an abiding re- the entire earth, the entire universe, and all . This spect and gratitude for each of you, for your individual is the scale of refrain from.” ** Refraining from IS the actual- Zen practice, and for the practice of collective awakening ity of practicing every good which is nothing but the purifying and wisdom that enlivens our mutuality.

*Dogen Zenji, “Not Doing Evils” in: Treasury of the True A new year, and yet doesn’t everything die at last and too Dharma Eye. Translation by William Bodiford. soon? Let us practice together refraining from doing evil, practic- ** Translation by Kaz Tanahashi. ing every good, and purifying the mind.  - 2 - Coming Full Circle: An Interview With Sensei Kodo

Leaving her husband, home and Sangha in New Jersey, Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd served as Zen Center’s Abbot Seat Holder for 2011. Before her return to New Jersey in early January, we had an opportunity to sit down and talk about her experience of the year.

Q – What has this year been like for you?

A – The truth is, I don’t know what this year has been like. I really don’t. And I won’t know. I know what it feels like right now, but in truth, the learning of the year will take a while to reveal itself to me. So I don’t expect to know what this year has been for a while.

Q – Did you come into this year with some expectation about what the year would be like, and were surprised that it didn’t unfold as you thought? Sensei Kodo during the New Year’s Revolving the Ceremony.

A – No, I didn’t have any expectation. If anything, it probably went more smoothly than I would have ex- Q – That portion of you ceases to exist. pected. But I didn’t have any particular expectations. So I haven’t had any big surprise. I think what I anticipated A – No, I’m not there. I’m just getting things done. I’m was that it would change me in some way, but I didn’t just the doing of things. But that’s not a person, that’s just know how, and I still assume that, whether I am aware of a function. And it really feels like that a lot of the time. it or not. I guess that is what I feel – if it has changed me And then we’ll hit Sunday, or the end of a lot of things in any way, I won’t know until later. we’ve just been doing doing doing, and it’s a strange ex- perience to suddenly be in the Pine House, with nothing Q – What has felt like the biggest challenge for you this pressing at the moment. And that’s when I feel, “Oh.” year? And when I talk with my husband. Somebody returns, but it’s different. A – I get very involved with whomever I am talking to, and the biggest challenge has been dealing with so many Q – Different in that the person who returns is not the different energies from so many people. same person?

Q – All close in time - A – Not the same person. I don’t know who it is. I don’t really know. A – Close in time and space. I am accustomed to being by myself a lot. I’m usually by myself all day, every day, Q – Quite a few years ago, Roshi wrote an article in the except on weekends. My husband goes to work, and I Water Wheel called The Crucible of Practice. And it stay home. I’m very used to that kind of schedule, where sounds like that has been some of your experience. I’m in solitude much of the time. This has been the op- posite (laughing). I have not had much solitude, and that A – Practice is always like that. My life is like that, I’m probably has made the biggest difference. I told Roshi always in a crucible. I’m always being ground up some that I didn’t recognize myself anymore, and I think that way by what is happening, always being changed. Yes, this is because when you have to move this much, this has been an intense crucible. To some extent, when you quickly, you just keep making decisions, dealing with live as I do, independent as a teacher and alone a lot, you what is in front of you. This year I realized how much structure your own life. Here, the structure shapes me. my idea of myself depended on reflection time. And That is very much a crucible. Either you meet it or you when I don’t have any time to reflect, I cease to exist. It don’t, and when I am not quite meeting it, I am very is a very interesting experience. (Continued on page 4) - 3 - COMING FULL CIRCLE (Continued from page 3) A – They have attached something to it. I came here first just as Kodo, a completely new priest. I became a priest in 1996, aware that I am not quite in accord with things. It is and I started coming here in 1997. So my first relationship being very pliable and flexible and whatever is needed, with the Sangha was gratitude for them taking me in, I was trying to just be whatever is needed. like a little orphan out there, no place to train and be trained. I had asked Roshi to be my teacher, but I hadn’t really Q – There are a lot of moving parts at Zen Center, so thought about how the Sangha would receive me. They made what is needed between one meeting and the next can be space for me, and I always appreciated that. I could come very different. here and train and be trained. That I could be a shuso here while I was living in New Jersey – how many places would A – Yes, and that’s why you disappear. Somehow in have been that generous? When I approached my transmis- there, you disappear. sion year, it felt to me, I was the first teacher in a while, I was the first in a lot of things for “us,” our generation of practi- Q – What has been your experience of working with a tioners. I really felt like it was everybody’s transmission, that residential sangha? It seems to me the biggest difference it wasn’t just mine; it felt as if the Sangha had reached a cer- between your experience in New Jersey and here would tain maturity and I just happened to be the volunteer. be having a residential sangha. Q – (laughing) I am sure there are a lot of people who would A – Actually, the biggest difference between here and disagree with the description of the randomness you just home is having the office staff, and having so much go- offered! You had been working with Roshi for a long time. ing on that I am deeply and intimately involved in but not determining. I don’t have so much to say about A – It’s true, but that was through my choice. Not everybody things. There is a calendar and a schedule, so that has would have chosen to do that. So the randomness continues. probably had much more of an effect on me than having It does. This is not all my choice. I think that is what this year a residential sangha. has brought me to. What I know right now about this year is that it has in some way brought me full circle to the begin- But my experience of the residential sangha relates to the ning of my life. I can follow a thread from age 3 to now and intimacy of so many lives, and the inclusion of all those say, “Oh, this is where I was headed.” In that sense, I just feel lives as part of my practice. In a way, it seems I have like a vessel or a conduit, just a means for the flowing of the more responsibility for them than for my sangha in New Dharma. In that way, it seems a random choice: “This little Jersey. I’m not sure why that is, maybe because I live with baby here, we’ll take her.”

Q – In a way it seems to show how little control that small- “I’m always in a crucible. I’m always self mind has over things. One of the pieces you wrote this being ground up some way by what is year in the Water Wheel talked about how you learned to jump rope as a little girl, and it was a beautiful, personal happening, always being changed.” story. I have that sense from what you just said that, in the day-to-day, we don’t get that perspective on our lives, but every so often we get to rise up a little bit, and see the lay of them. Whenever I come here, and I’ve been coming here the land, and it sounds like what you are saying. Even amidst since 1997, usually I don’t even have access to a car, so the busyness of this year, you can still have that perspective. I’ve been part of the Sangha, and in a way I have felt closer to the residential sangha than maybe to some of A – One of the things I have experienced is looking at my the commuter members. In that sense, I’ve felt those are entire life differently. How I would have described it at one the people I knew best, the people who live here, and point would have been very personal – problems to over- they knew me best. That’s felt very familiar, because that come, this happened, then that happened. And now, I can part of my practice has been going on for a long time. look at it and say, you know, it is just the Dharma unfolding. And I am surprised at where I have ended up. Q – I think you said that one of the things that struck you was that, having this Abbot Seat Holder position, Q – Both are true in a way, aren’t they? All those events really you noticed that people suddenly treated you a little dif- happened, yet the Dharma unfolds across them. ferently, that when you speak, people treat what you say as if there is some authority attached to it that is differ- A – Well, let’s put it this way. I can see the path of the ent. (Continued on page 5)

- 4 - Dharma through my life, from the time I was three. I can see the thread now. But this wasn’t what I was intending. And I intentionally lived my life. I had an idea, a sense, of what I needed in my life, from childhood on, so I was in- tentionally living in a certain direction, but I certainly did- n’t know it was this.

Q – But now you can see a through-line, from where you started to where you are now?

A – I guess that’s true for everyone, each in their own way. That’s what life is, that’s the absolute and relative, you think you’re living a particular life, with plans and goals, and disappointments – all these events along the way – and all that’s happening is the Dharma is unfolding. But you have to look, you have to look. There’s some kind of shift you have to make that turns everything in your life into a teacher. And that’s how it becomes the Dharma.

I haven’t given much thought to this interview, but I have been giving a lot of thought to how I feel I have come full circle, and how much of my childhood has been on my mind. Stuff I haven’t thought about for years. I have felt Roshi and Sensei Kodo, December 31, 2011. homesick for the first time in my life, something I’ve never

for everybody, and I know that some people deliberate a “What I know right now about this year is long time, but in my life in the Dharma, I’ve never deliber- ated over any decision regarding the Dharma. It’s always that it has in some way brought me full been immediate, and once made, never changed. circle to the beginning of my life.” Q – When you go back home and have a life where you can set the structure again, how will that work for you? experienced before. There is a sense of having come full circle. And unlike T.S. Eliot’s poem that talks about know- A – I don’t know (laughing). I’ve been wondering that. I’ll ing the place for the first time, I don’t have that sense, not start out just as before. Our Sangha meets on Wednesday of knowing it for the first time, but of knowing it differ- evening, people come sit at my house on Tuesday morning ently. I will come full circle over and over again, I can have and Friday morning, then every fourth Saturday of the that experience again, it is the same and it is different. It month we meet all day at my house. That’s our schedule. happens over and over again. This is the first time I’ve And we’ll return to that. So after I get a little rest, I’ll re- ever had that view over such a long period of time, the sume the dawn , and then we’ll see. There will be a first time I’ve ever not claimed credit for becoming a priest change, but I think that it will be more in how I teach than and doing this as if they were decisions I made; obviously any structural change. they were, I could have chosen something else. Q – So to be continued. When I sent words to Jitsujo’s tokudo, I said that it is a decision that seems both unexpected and inevitable all at A – Yeah, to be continued. One way or another. once. I didn’t plan to become a priest. But when the ques- tion was put to me, it was like, “Of course, isn’t it obvious Q – The Dharma unfolds regardless. that is what I’m supposed to do?” But it wasn’t as if I had given thought to it. A – Roshi and I once talked about that word “unfold.” It’s not really that it unfolds. That implies that there is a past Q – But it seemed like the natural progression. and everything led to now. Of course, that is how we ex- perience it. But it’s also that it’s just now. So I certainly A – It had an inevitability to it. I don’t know if it’s like that don’t know exactly how it will be. 

- 5 - On Taking Leave of Great Dragon Mountain

By Sensei Kipp Ryodo Hawley

It is now thirty-two years since I entered the gate of Great Dragon Mountain. Back then, the name “Roshi” meant Maezumi Roshi, and the name “Sensei” meant Genpo Merzel. I was a struggling musician as well as a beginning Zen student, and I was assigned to study with Joko Beck, who had recently begun interviews with students.

The details of practice were different in those days, but the intent has always been the same. Waking up within our own life, within our own context and details. This is very difficult to do, and this is the reason we have Zen centers and teachers – to support each other on this difficult path.

In the early eighties, we had a large residential com- munity along with a large number of people on staff. It was quite a bustling place, with a week-long sesshin seem- ingly every month, and the atmosphere (as I perceived it) was of an energetic group of earnest practitioners push- ing each other on to enlightenment. There were few Zen centers then, no email and no Internet, so to practice you had to travel to places like ZCLA and San Francisco Zen Center, and as a result these practice places became densely populated.

These days, we have a smaller sangha here on Great Dragon Mountain, with most of us being commuters. Moving along with the new way things are done, we’re widely distributed, connecting through new media. And, we have an emphasis on Collective Awakening rather than individual pursuit of the Way. This is a marvelous, new thing. But when you really look into it, fundamen- tally it isn’t new at all. It’s actually quite a cozy, familiar place. The collective aspect is just a new way of appreci- ating this familiar place. When we awaken, we leave the dream of “me” behind. All “my” fears, “my” hopes, “my” regrets, “my” possessions, “my” stubbornesses, “my” wants, “my” peeves – these are the stuff of the dream.

Waking up, these all dissolve like the beach fog under (Continued on page 7)

Sensei Kipp Ryodo Hawley is the spiritual leader of Westchester Zen Circle. He received from Roshi Egyoku in 2007 and is the author of Three Steps to Mindful- ness: Bringing Zen Awareness Into Your Life.

- 6 - TAKING LEAVE (Continued from page 6) with the details in our life. By “more intimate.” I mean giv- ing all our attention to what we are doing. When we are 100 the noon sun. The foundation of all of these is the percent involved in an activity it’s like a perfectly efficient separation of “me” from “you,” “him,” “her,” “it.” Or engine – it burns all its fuel without leaving any residue. No maybe a better metaphor is to see these as the walls of the smoke or ashes. In Zen we say “leave no trace”. This means house of ego, as Kennett Roshi used to call it. These walls being so involved in what you are doing that there is no are necessary for us to function in this life; we use them residue, no echoes left behind. These traces stick to us, so for decision-making. It is appropriate to treat “him” dif- the fewer we leave, the less “stuff ” there is to cause prob- ferently from “it,” and this “her” differently from another lems for ourselves and those around us. “her.” But these are temporary and, ultimately, arbitrary distinctions, useful only in specific times and places. Set- The White Plum tree outside the Zendo front door is in ting them aside, we can immediately see that, first of all, bloom. The ancient metaphor has come alive – we literally we can set them aside. They aren’t intrinsic, they aren’t per- have plum blossoms on the old branch. This marvelous manent; they’re only labels that we ourselves have created world of ours continues maturing and renewing, as do we. to serve some purpose. What about after that purpose has We aren’t apart from it. As Dogen Zenji says, we are been fulfilled? What about after those distinctions been “mountains, rivers and the great earth, the sun and the set aside? moon and the stars.” We are all of us part and parcel of it. What if we all were fully awake together within it? We enter the place of awakening. And yes, that is also another temporary label. But when we’ve set all bounda- This is the intent of our Zen practice – to bring every- ries aside, what can we call Collective? What can we call one (including ourselves!) into this stream of awakening. Individual? These are also part of the dream, dissolving This is the intent I found on Great Dragon Mountain in away with the rest of the dream. 1980, and it is this intent I carry as I take my leave in 2012. I will miss all my friends here at Zen Center of Los Angeles. This place of awakening is dynamic and full of life, But in a way, it isn’t actually possible to leave. Where is the not some sort of static blankness. We don’t turn into true location of ZCLA?  stone Buddhas. We’re living, human Buddhas. So we re- turn to the place of distinctions and see them all differ- ently. Instead of hard and fast separations from “me,” we

“Instead of hard and fast separations from ‘me,’ we now see them all as markings on the One Body.” now see them all as markings on the One Body. Then we return to the place of awakening to get refreshed before moving into to the place of distinctions once again.

We find that, although we can experience awakening as a specific psychological event, as living Buddhas we enter into an ongoing cycle of awakening. Dropping all distinctions, we find ourselves in the so-called Absolute. Returning to the realm of differences we find ourselves in the so-called Relative. As you’ve discovered for yourself, when you rise from a period of zazen, the world seems fresher, cleaner. And the deeper your while sit- ting, the clearer the world seems when you get up. On New Year’s Eve, a chrysalis by the front entrance to the Zendo that first appeared during The details of our world come into sharper relief Rohatsu sesshin opened to reveal a Monarch because of the time we’ve spent sitting in Samadhi. And butterfly within. our Samadhi gets deeper as we become more intimate

- 7 - Zen Programs at Great Dragon Mountain

Service Position Training. Saturday, February 4, 11:30 January Bare-Bones Schedule a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Service and liturgy are important as-

pects of Zen training and practice. In this class, we have A January bare-bones schedule begins 2012 with open an opportunity to experience one-on-one training while zazen (no timekeeper) during weekdays for dawn and practicing these positions in a relaxed setting. Please sign evening zazen. Regular weekend service, zazen, and Zen up in advance. Practice 1 & 2 introductory classes will continue, as well

as the monthly Day of Reflection. Teacher interviews will be posted in the weekly Programs email. There will Zazen Programs be no talks. You are encouraged to use this month for the barest practice—Just Sitting. Reflect. How will you See the schedule and calendar sections of our website at best use and be used by this coming year? www.zcla.org, for the daily program schedule and for additional program details and updates.

Special Observances  – Please register in advance on the sign-up sheet in the Sangha House through [email protected]. Sensei Ryodo Leave-Taking. Sunday, January 22, at * – Zendo remains open for non-participants. 9:45 a.m. After 32 years of practice at ZCLA, Sensei Ryodo will formally take his leave. Please join us for this Zazenkai.* Friday, February 10, 7:00 p.m. to ceremony of departure in the Zendo, followed by tea Saturday, February 11, 5:00 p.m. Led by Roshi. Every- and snacks in the Sangha House. one is encouraged to come to this silent and restful day with zazen, service, work, meals, , and Face- Sensei Nyogen Senzaki Gravesite Visit. Sunday, to-Face meeting. Open to everyone. Fee: $40; $75 for January 22, at 11:00 a.m. Annual offering of gratitude nonmembers.  and services at the Evergreen Cemetery gravesite of American Zen pioneer Nyogen Senzaki and Japanese-American Buddhist ancestors. Meet in the Precept Practice Sangha House driveway for carpooling at 11:00 a.m. For an excellent book of Senzaki Sensei’s writings, see A Day of Reflection on the Zen Precepts Eloquent Silence, Wisdom Publications, 2008. will take place on Saturdays, January 21 and February 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Annual Major Donor Memorial Service. Saturday, January 21 will be led by Dharma-Joy Reichert on February 4, 8:30 a.m. The Center holds its annual Precept #8 : The practice of not being stingy. memorial service for deceased major donors every February 18 will be led by Jotai Webb on Precept #5: February. Please come to offer gratitude to these donors The practice of not being deluded. Open to everyone. whose generosity has helped make continuing practice on Great Dragon Mountain possible! Atonement Ceremony. Thursday, February 23, 7:30 p.m. During this ceremony of Renewing our Vows Service. Saturday, February 11, 8:30 a.m. and Precepts, we each have an opportunity to bear wit- We commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s passing from ness to our conduct in thoughts, words, and actions. this world. The Parinirvana scroll, a temple treasure, will Everyone is welcome to participate. Those who have be displayed in the Buddha Hall. Please join us. received the Precepts are asked to attend on a regular basis. Roshi will officiate. Classes and Workshops Dharma Training Fund Introductory Zen Practice Classes. Our introductory Zen practice program includes beginning meditation Through the generosity of the Sangha, the Dharma instruction (ZP 1 and ZP 2, offered weekly) as well as a Training Fund is available to supplement program fees. full day of practice at ZCLA (ZP 3, offered monthly). No serious practitioner is ever turned away for lack of For information on times and dates for these programs, funds. If you wish to take part in a particular program, see the “beginners” section of our website, at please do not let financial difficulties keep you from at- www.zcla.org. tending. Inquire with Senshin for an application. Do not miss any opportunity to practice the Dharma!  - 8 -

Sensei Kodo’s Dharma Words Bodhi Day Sunday, December 11, 2011

World-Honored One, transcending limitations, all time and space is present here.

Being mind-root and being 10,000 leaves and flowers, we are brought here this December morning by your 49 years of walking.

We make these offerings in gratitude, and thank you for the ancient relinquishing still emitting light in our lives.

Your presence can seem so like absence. Sensei officiating the New Year’s The fires of seeking and longing are constantly stoked. Atonement Ceremony.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Sensei Koan’s Dharma Words It is our great fortune Founder’s Service to meet in this way. Saturday, December 16, 2011

Beloved Founders, revered ancestors, Your Dharma rings with each hit on the densho, Penetrates our marrow and enlivens each hour. Light and darkness dance on Normandie Mountain.

Holding up a finger, giving thirty blows, Ten thousand blows could never kill it. The old barbarian himself could only watch in awe.

How fortunate! How very fortunate we are, After eons of cause and effect, to be your sons and daughters. Sitting on a pile of gold, let’s not play in the mud.

Please accept our offerings As symbols of our gratitude.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

“Maintain and nourish the One Buddha Mind Seal. Life after life, birth after birth, please practice diligently. Never falter. Do not let die the Wisdom seed of the Buddhas and Ancestors.” Sensei Kodo and Sensei Koan offer incense during the annual Buddha’s Birthday service in the garden. Quote from Maezumi Roshi’s last Dharma Words

- 9 -

Calls for Stewarding from Great Dragon Mountain

As reflected in the many people thanked on the facing page, Zen Center’s functioning relies on the steward- ing of its members. You are invited to participate in this process of Zen Center stewardship, which is an- other form of practice and training. For more infor- mation on the areas identified below, or on any other area of Zen Center life for which you would like to offer support, please contact Program Steward Sen- shin at [email protected], except as otherwise indicated. Sensei Kodo gives the Precepts to Yvonne Myosei Beatty.

 Temple cleaning;  Altar cleaning Contact Co-Chidens Mugen Han- dler at [email protected] or Butsugen Romo at [email protected];  Grounds and gardens Contact Grounds Steward Faith-Mind Thoresen at [email protected];  Sound recording for talks on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings;  Volunteer weekend Tenzos for Sunday lunches and Saturday tea snacks;  Service Position training Contact Co- Ceremonial Stewards Dharma-Joy Reichert at [email protected] or Faith-Mind Thoresen at [email protected];  Zendo Position training Contact Zendo Steward Mukei Horner at [email protected]. Roshi and Sensei Kodo during the Re-Entry and Leave-Taking Ceremonies.

Sangha Rites of Passage

CEREMONY FOR RECEIVING THE PRECEPTS ABBOT RE-ENTRY From Preceptor Merle Kodo Boyd Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao December 15, 2011 ABBOT SEAT HOLDER LEAVE-TAKING Yvonne Myosei Beatty Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd

- 10 - Your Gifts are Received with Jonathan Levy, Pam Smith, Enduring-Vow, Bodhi-Heart, Jiho, Elaine Chikai Held, Jenny a Heartfelt “Thank You!” Jusen Warner, Mugen, and Lana Shoshin Spraker; Members of the Disaster Preparedness Group for their

ongoing efforts to keep us safe: Tom Pine-Ocean Please contact Dharma-Joy ([email protected]) if you know of Cleary, Jiho and Mugen; to appreciate. Have we missed anyone? New Development Circle members Cassie Riger,

Bonnie Myosen Nadzam and Kai Myokai To Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd for this year as Abbot Seat Snodgrass; Holder; and Neli Koen Cartolin for her many years of service and Sensei Kipp Ryodo Hawley for his many years of leadership on the Brown-Green Group and in so training and teaching here at ZCLA; many other places and ways; The Teachers Circle for their many activities and efforts Fourth Quarter Buddha Hall Service Leaders for during this past year; stewarding our daily services: Mukei, Kaizen, Jotai, Reeb Kaizen Venners and Sensei Gary Koan Janka for Ando, Luminous-Heart, Dharma-Joy, Faith- their tenzo efforts during Rohatsu sesshin, and to Mind, Enduring-Vow, Jitsujo, and Gessho; Andy Mugen Handler and Roberta Brehm for Muso for stewarding the Board through an extended their tenzo efforts during the End-Of-Year Sesshin; process concerning the Zen Peacemakers loan; and Our parking coordinator and assistants: Tina Jitsujo Faith-Mind for manifesting the 10,000 hands of Gauthier, Jolene Beiser, Jane Chen, Chris Shaw, Kanzeon by doing so many things on so many fronts, Jiho Sterling, Mugen, Betsy Enduring Vow seemingly all at once; and Brown, Nelida Koen Cartolin, and Nina Reiju To the many hands and eyes, seen and unseen, who Wasserman; helped in myriad ways throughout our Fall Practice Our cooks and snack coordinators, including for our Period: Ango meals on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays:

Susanna Knittel, Roberta Brehn, Reeb Kaizen Thank you!!!  Venners, Rosa Ando Martinez, Mugen, Enduring- Vow, Sensei Koan, Penelope Luminous-Heart Thompson, Jessica Dharma-Lotus Armstrong, Lynda Jikai Golan, Katherine Senshin Griffith, ZCLA Affiliated & Tom Yudo Burger, Gemma Cubero, Reiju, Jane Sitting Groups* Chen, Dan Hegarty, Conrad Butsugen Romo, Ellen Reigen Ledley, and Patti Muso Giggans; The Laguna Hills Sangha (CA) Those who helped with the Day of Dana, including coordinated by Helen Daiji Powell

Senshin, Koen, Gemma Cubero, George Mukei The Lincroft Zen Sangha (NJ) Horner, Elizabeth Prager, John Heart-Mirror led by Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd Trotter, Reiju, Ty Jotai Webb, Jiho, cookie bakers Bob Gido Fisher, Andrew Bodhi-Heart Halladay The Monday Night Meditation Group (Pasadena, CA) and Tom Dharma-Joy Reichert, and especially to coordinated by Betty Jiei Cole

stewards Ando and Susanna Knittel; The Ocean Moon Sangha (Santa Monica, CA) John Plum-Hermit Swanger, Jikai and Susanna for co- led by Sensei John Daishin Buksbazen visioning and organizing the Sangha Enso for Sensei Kodo; The San Luis Obispo Sitting Group (CA) Muso and Kaizen for organizing and assembling the coordinated by Mark Shogen Bloodgood

photo book for Sensi Kodo and to Jiho for sewing The Valley Sangha (Woodland Hills, CA) the beautiful case for it; led by Sensei Patricia Shingetsu Guzy The many people who helped organize our New Year’s Eve events and celebrations, including Ando, Carla, The Westchester Zen Circle (CA) Enduring-Vow, Senshin, and Faith-Mind; led by Sensei Kipp Ryodo Hawley

Mukei for serving as Zendo steward and to our fourth Contact us at [email protected] for information. quarter jikidos, including Jane Chen, Mugen, Lorraine Gessho Kumpf, Z Zeller, Jotai, Yudo, * Affiliated groups are led by Dharma Successors Ando, David Hilton, Jikai, Nina Harake, Jitsujo, of Roshi Egyoku or coordinated by practitioners Heart-Mirror, and Chris Daian Fields. actively practicing at ZCLA with a teacher. Those The volunteers who sewed rakusus for practitioners at the interested in leading a ZCLA-affiliated sitting California Men’s Colony San Luis Obispo, including group may apply to the Teachers Circle. Master Thich Mihn Nhat (Sensei Nagy),

- 11 - The Water Wheel is published by the Zen Center of ZCLA Great Dragon Mountain Los Angeles, Great Dragon Mountain / Buddha Buddha Essence Temple Essence Temple, which was founded in 1967 by the late Taizan Maezumi Roshi. 923 South Normandie Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90006-1301 Our mission is to know the Self, maintain the precepts, and serve others. We provide the teaching, training, and transmission of Zen Bud- Address Correction Requested dhism. Our vision is an enlightened world free of suffering, in which all beings live in harmony, everyone has enough, deep wisdom is realized, and compassion flows unhindered. Our core values are available upon request or on our Web site, www.zcla.org.

Founding Abbot: Taizan Maezumi Roshi Abbot 1995-1999: Roshi Bernard Glassman Abbot: Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao Abbot Seat-Holder: Sensei Merle Kodo Boyd Staff: Mary Rios, Business Manager; Katherine Senshin Griffith, Program Steward; Tom Yudo Burger, Guest Steward; Deb Faith-Mind Thore- sen, Grounds & Membership Steward; John Plum-Hermit Swanger, Development Steward. Water Wheel: Editor, Tom Dharma-Joy Reichert; Assistant Editor, Burt Wetanson. Proofreading and editing: John Heart-Mirror Trotter; Photog- rapher: Dharma-Joy, Jonathan Levy; Publishing and distribution: John Heart-Mirror Trotter.

The Water Wheel is published bi-monthly in paper and electronic formats. Contact the Editor at (213) 387-2352 or [email protected]. The Water Wheel is also available through electronic distribution and on the Web at www.zcla.org.

ABBOT RE-ENTERING CEREMONY, DECEMBER 31, 2011

Roshi is welcomed back by her six Dharma successors after her Re-Entering Roshi doing jundo during her Ceremony: Senseis Ryodo, Shingetsu, Ensho, Kodo, Daishin and Koan. Re-Entering Ceremony.

- 12 -